Over 120 computer enthusiasts from around the world gathered for Vhacks, the first 'hackathon' hosted by the Vatican

Students from various nationalities gathered at the Palazzo dei Penitenzieri, which now houses Hotel Columbus, to work on projects concerning migrants and interreligious dialogue during the first hackathon held at the Vatican. (Photo by M. Migliorato/CPP/CIRIC)

Don't worry! The Vatican has not been hacked!

The 120 "hackers" or computer enthusiasts who gathered at the Vatican over the weekend just meters from St. Peter's Square did so in the original sense of the word "hack" meaning to "solve a problem."

More recently, the word has taken on a newer meaning in the world of internet security to designate network attacks, a connotation that has now gained wide currency.

"We came to hack problems, not (Vatican) security," joked Jakub Florkiewicz, a Harvard Business School student, who was one of the organizers of Vhacks, the first hackathon ever held at the Vatican.

"The idea of the hackathon was to bring very different kinds of people together to find solutions to common problems," said Father Eric Salobir, president of Optic, the Dominican network for new technologies, who developed the links between the hackers and the Vatican."

In fact, Father Salobir initiated the Vhacks initiative, which brought together 120 students from the world's best universities – often from the English-speaking world – to address three issues that are particularly dear to Pope Francis, namely social inclusion, interreligious dialogue and migrant aid.

Beneath the painted ceilings of the venerable Palazzo dei Penitenzieri on Via Conciliazione, the 15th century palace of Cardinal Domenico della Rovere that now houses the Hotel Columbus and headquarters of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, hackers in sports shoes and t-shirts quickly put their sticker-covered computers to work.

In teams of five, they worked for 36 hours straight under the watchful eyes of Silicon Valley giants such as Google, Microsoft or Airbnb as well as the Vatican itself to develop projects that are both technically and economically viable.

"There is a temptation is to be more focused on solutions than on problems and thus to develop solutions that do not meet the needs of people in the field," said Father Michael Czerny, who is responsible for migrant and refugee issues on behalf of Pope Francis.

Moving from team to team, he listened at length, sharing his experience as well as warning of the dangers of certain projects.

One project, for example, proposed to enable migrants to find their dispersed families through facial recognition software.

"How can we ensure that those who persecuted these people are unable to use (facial recognition) to find their victims?" he asked.

In fact, in an effort to keep connected to the grassroots, some hackers, including the Georgetown University students who won the "Migrants and Refugees" category, went to visit a migrant reception center upon their arrival in Rome.

The students observed that one of the principal obstacles to integration for migrants was the difficulty of obtaining housing for lack of being able to show their financial capacity.

Their solution was to develop Credit-Ability, a site that enables migrants to assemble a dossier from their list of small jobs, modest income and their efforts to repay a microcredit loan. This allows them to create a genuine financial history and demonstrate their solvency.

"I am very impressed to see some people achieve in 36 hours what some French start-ups manage to do in one or two months!" said Christophe Agnus, director of new projects at Vivendi, who spent three hours observing young people and on the look out for new talent.

Agnus and Google Europe president, Carlo d'Asaro Biondo, now hope to be able to offer long-term mentoring on one or two Vhacks projects.

The Vatican too has shown great interest in the first hackathon held inside its walls.

"Hackathons are genuine cultural events that bring young people people," said Archbishop Lucio Ruiz, second in charge at the Secretariat for Communication.

"Nevertheless, the Church has always been attentive to the development of culture," he emphasized.

On March 9 afternoon, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, also visited the Vhacks project to walk around the tables to hear about the various projects.

At one point, he even donned a virtual reality helmet to try out the latest technologies!

Pope Francis, however, did not attend although he has followed the project from its beginnings and personally encouraged it.

"It is beautiful to place the intelligence that God gives us at the service of the truth and the most needy," Pope Francis told Vhacks participants during his Sunday Angelus talk from the window of the pontifical apartment.

"This hackathon at the Vatican was the first," said Archbishop Ruiz on behalf of Vatican Communications. "There will be more."

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